Place Name
Currie Hill Close was laid out in 1956 on the site of a house called Curriehill, built in the late 19thCentury by biscuit magnet Jonathan Dodgson Carr, and named after the Lothian town, that is now a suburb of Edinburgh. Carr was a biscuit magnate who invented the Garibaldi biscuit while working for rival Peek Frean in the 1850s, having departed the family firm in frustration of his brother’s failure give him any responsibilities for running the business. However, since he had spent much of his life in Carlisle, it is unclear what the connection with Curriehill was that inspired him. As an aside, auction records show that Curriehill was subsequently the residence of a George Henry Williamson (1845 – 1918), who was a leading businessman from Worcester, his father having founded the Providence Tinplate Works, and was Mayor of Worcester in 1893. In 1906 Williamson was briefly elected Conservative and Unionist MP for Worcester before being disqualified. It was suggested that members of his team had bribed people to vote Conservative. After a petition by the Liberal Party the result was declared void. However, he sat in the House of Commons just long enough to vote against an amendment to a bill.
